The first summit finish of the 2015 Tour de France and a brutal change in pace as the race switches from the plains to the mountains. After all the projection and speculation we’ll finally see what everyone has got as attitude makes way for altitude in the first of a Pyrenean trifecta.
Don’t miss the stage and its earlier than usual finish.
From Pau the Pyrenees sit on the horizon like ramparts of a distant fortress, the scene of battles to come. The opening week of the Tour de France has been dramatic and thrilling but in the race for the yellow jersey it’s merely been a qualification event.
0.62 seconds separated BMC Racing from Team Sky, nothing at all but a useful lesson in team work. The two teams were obvious picks for the day but such a close margin added some thrills to what could have been a boring procession of teams.
Cycling is an individual sport conducted with teams. Except today where it becomes a team sport and the best rider in the peloton is only as good as the fifth rider on their team. It crosses a subtle line.
A team time trial to shake up the first phase of the race before the rest day and the Pyrenees arrive. The “Big Four” all ride for big teams so the fight for the stage win and the GC align. Let’s see if a diminished Orica-Greenedge can still beat some full teams.
Mûr-de-Bretagne’s mini summit finish awaits after a ride across Brittany with its hilly and tiring roads. In 2011 Cadel Evans won the stage before winning the Tour de France. The same again? We’ll see but the approach to the climb this time is different.
Adults were hauled folding chairs and picnic coolboxes, children carried hats, bags and small packets of sweets. They were moving in the opposite direction to me and this was worrying. I’d planned on watching the Tour de France and many were leaving. Surely I of all people hadn’t got the time wrong? Perhaps the racing was so furious it was over an hour ahead of schedule? No, the exodus turned out to be people going home after the Tour de France’s publicity caravan had been through, they’d got their loot of freebies and didn’t want to stay for the race.
Here’s a look at the business of the Tour de France’s publicity caravan, the show you never see on TV but an astonishing marketing success.
A rare regular sprint finish, or at least as close as it gets because the final few hundred metres kick up. We should get another bunch sprint while Chris Froome gets a new and unwanted spell in the yellow jersey.
A long coastal section with exposed roads that are narrow in parts, enough to fray the nerves any day but the forecast is for more crosswinds. The stage ends with a punchy uphill finish, perfect for Peter Sagan and everyone who tries to follow his wheel.
This Tour always means more cycling coverage and there are only so many hours a day you can watch the Tour de France and read about it online. For the rest there’s a podcast.
This year brings an explosion in the number of podcasts to download, here are some thoughts and links to some of them.